The Value Reaffirmation
by Magician Irono
Summary: She loves you. And so can you.


I haven't kept up with the series too well. The events of this fanfiction could take place anywhere in the timeline after Howard and Bernadette's marriage. So I have two requests. 1.) No spoilers please. I should find the episodes myself. 2.) Please enjoy the story. There will be flaws after editing, I'm sure and maybe not all the characters will be in character, but take the good of your experience with you and don't let the bad get too, well, bad. Thank you very much.

The Big Bang Theory is own by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady. Again, enjoy the show!

**The Value Reaffirmation **

The term is "starving actress", yes? Fitting enough. Penny's cabinets held little more than wine, ramen, and other boxed meals. More than she could measure, the girl was thankful for the guys purchasing a share of food for her and inviting them into the next apartment for the evening. Food, shelter, social comforts- the most basic of her needs were right across the hall and the providers more than happy to give it.

Penny smoothed out the ruffles in her new green tank top and skipped to her neighbors' door in a pair of peach flip-flops. She rapped on the door with a smile. "Leonard and Sheldon?" She rapped again. "Leonard and Sheldon?" And again. "Leonard and Sheldon?"

Laughter sounded from the inside. The door opened with a few clicks. A brunette man in his usual glasses and jacket grinned back. "C'mon," he jested. "You don't need to pick up any of those habits from him. Osmosis rarely works for humans."

"Oh, you'd still love me even if I did." Penny planted a kiss on Leonard's cheek. They share one more on the lips before the two re-enter the apartment. The girl pulled up a chair. "The guys out?"

"Yup." The blonde heard her boyfriend rummage through the cabinets and fridge. "Had some projects to finish up. Can't remember what, though. I'm just holding the fort down here, waiting for you. Ordered thai food, too."

"You weren't waiting for me too long, were you?"

"Nope."

The place was a lot more tidy than her own apartment, that was for sure, and welcoming despite being so devoid of human life. All the figurines and knick-knacks on the shelves and walls, standing tall and heroic for the protection of the apartment's inhabitants, had given a personality to the room that Penny had come to appreciate over time. The nerds had been bullied in their school years, there was no doubt. Maybe their obsessions with comics and superheroes were carried over into adulthood from a time in which they felt small and powerless, in need of a figure to help them feel strong, even if it were pretend. Penny had kept old baseball cards and a stuffed raccoon with a jersey as well, reminiscent of her days as daddy's "little slugger". She grinned at a plastic family of The Fantastic Four and let herself plop down onto a cushy couch seat. Trading cards had been scattered on the coffee table before her, ripe with grotesque and wondrous paint strokes. She picked up a few. "New game?"

"Magic the Gathering," replied Leonard. There was the crack of a ziploc bag being opened and the clattering of some solid substances. He spoke over the sound of ripping velcro. "I think it's a pretty cool TCG, though standard enough. Summon monsters and play spells to get your opponent's hit points down to zero, that stuff. Did you know that the pictures on those cards were painted by actual artists?"

She nods. "They get paid for it?"

"Think so. Me and the guys tried it once, bu- _sss!_"

Penny looked up as her boyfriend moans a small "ow". The card game was no longer interesting. A brace was tossed on the island in the kitchen next to an ice tray. Leonard, biting his lip, gingerly held a makeshift ice pack on his left wrist, having gone stout, red, and swollen. "Oh my god." She jumped from her seat and rushed over to inspect the afflicted area. "What happened?!"

The physicist looks up, eyebrows knit with pain, but unconcerned either way. "What?"

"_Your hand!" _

He had to look at area before answering, as if he had forgotten. Maybe he was not bothered, but Penny couldn't understand why at the moment. Leonard lifted the wrist and ice pack together. "Oh, this," he began. "I-It's nothing. A fire started in the lab and I-" he stopped for a moment, hanging his head and giving a small shrug. His voice dropped in volume. "Jammed it reaching for the fire extinguisher."

"How?"

"Wall right next to it." He looked away.

"And you didn't tell me this _why_?"

"It was late last night," came the defensive reply. "Would I really wake up my girlfriend at some ungodly hour just to tell her I hurt myself?"

". . .You got a point. But that recently?" Penny looked apologetically at the swollen flesh. She began to reach for it and then stopped herself. _I might make it worse. _"How are you feeling now?"

"Better. Doc gave me something for the pai-"

A low buzz sounded. Leonard straightened up and, with his good hand, reached into his pocket for his cellphone. White digital zeros blinked on a black background. "Huh," he replied, turning the timer off. "Gotta pick up the food." The man stuffed the phone in his pocket and put the ice pack back in the freezer. "I'll be back in a sec, unless you want to come with."

Being his girlfriend, Penny noticed several of Leonards little quirks and mannerisms that others would find rather useless. Like how he would use both hands when driving. Her mind was made up. "I'm driving."

"Penny, you don't-"

"I said I'm driving!"

The man couldn't stop her from marching out the door to retrieve her keys and purse from her apartment. But following her down the staircase and recalling the drive that morning, in which Sheldon had pulled on the steering wheel to avoid hitting a car in the next lane, Leonard decided it was for the better.

**Break the line!**

Penny had taken a little extra care in smoother starts and breaks and the evening was a mild one, save the traffic. Both had found it in them to calm down and had completely disregarded Leonard's injury, save the impending quip. Raj had called to alert the two that he, Howard and Sheldon would be on their way soon. It would be a calm dinner tonight.

Penny, carrying a large brown bag, and Leonard walked out of the thai restaurant with the sound of a bell and waffing curry smells behind them. She looked down into the bag and took a whiff of the steamed veggies, savory fried rice, and juicy pulled pork. A hint of fried tofu from Sheldon's pad thai had added to the mix. "You guys got a lot of food this time," commented the blonde. "Like, _a lot_."

"Everyone was hungry," explained the brunette as he eyes the bag. Leonard leans over. "Looks really good, too. I kinda wish you'd let me carry it. . ."

"Nu-uh, mister." Penny pulled away and stuck out her tongue. "We're waiting for everybody else."

"Aww, c'mon." Que the puppy face. "I'm hungry. Lunch was, like, forever ago."

"Oh, quit whining and be nicer to your driver. I mean I love you, but sheesh!"

". . .Penny."

"Just put a leash on your appetite, ok? We'll be home soon en-"

"Penny." Leonard's voice was suddenly firm. So was his hand on her shoulder. The girl stopped. He pointed. She turned.

It was Penny's car. In the light of an alley way street lamp was a silhouette hunched on the sidewalk near the car. Penny held her breath. The night was getting late- no other people lingered around. An extension of the figure- an arm- rose and went back down swiftly. The hiss of a deflating tire sounded. Immediately the figure moved to the next one. Penny covered her mouth to silence the gasp.

"Stay here," whispered Leonard. "Go get help." He rolled up his right sleeve as best he could and marched forward. Penny briskly followed in order to talk some sense into her boyfriend. "Hey," calls the shorter. "What do you think you're doing?"

The silhouette raised it's arm again, but stopped. It's head shifted towards the pair. Slowly and unevenly, the hunched figure rose to it's full height. It was a man, towering a full six feet above the couple. They shrunk back. The giant looked at them with red, unfocused eyes. Now longer brown hair was thrown into a mess. He scratched the shadow on his chin. Ever present in the knife in his right hand and the bottle in his left.

Kurt.

He leaned forward to look at Leonard and gave a sneer. The smaller male withered back at the strong, foul beer breath. "Well, 'f it ain't the little dwarf," the drunk slurs. "Off t'work you go on my girl, I see?"

"Back off, Kurt," demands the blonde. "And quit acting like I'm your property-"

"You stay out of this," shouted the taller.

"Yeah, please do," added Leonard.

"And _you_!" The giant scooped up smaller's jacket collar and lifts him off the ground. The physicist, as his feet dangle and he chokes, clinging onto his shirt and Kurt's fist. Penny screamed for him to stop. She goes ignored. "Where d'you get off being a thief, eh? She was mine and y'took her away."

"Just leave us alone," the smaller croaked. "I didn't take anyone away from anybody."

"_Liar!_" Kurt threw Leonard to the ground. The girl called his name and ruan to attack the giant. Needless to say, it didn't work. Penny is shoved onto the concrete as well, marked with a long scrape on her arm and a mess of thai food beside her. Leonard breaths her name. His pain was not a priority. The assailant stumbled closer. "Eye for an eye, you bastard."

The next moment came swift. Too swift for Penny to react.

And she didn't need to.

What she could register was that the six foot man was plowing towards Leonard. Still being on the ground, he squatted on his heels, rolled past the man along the length of his spine, stood up, and pivoted on his feet into a fighting stance. Kurt charged again. The physicist's leg extended in the air, calf snapped up like a whip, heel out, at about the height of his own head, and met Kurt's jaw with a sickening crack and blood droplets. The smaller snatches up Kurt's bottle and smashed the end in an alley wall, pointing the sharp and jagged end defensively and scrambled away, pulling Penny to her feet. "Run," he commanded. "Get help somewhere safe."

Kurt straightens up, wiping away the blood.

"Now!"

_Whump!_

The physicist doubled over, holding his stomach and regurgitating it's contents. Another drunken punch to the mouth sent him to the ground and, as they would find out later, a tooth flying out his mouth. Goliath took David up by the collar and rammed him into the wall of the building, eliciting a pained sound out of the smaller. The smaller cried out as Kurt squeezed the braced hand. Leonard released the bottle, shattering to the ground.

"Y'ain't got nothing, little man." Leonard whimpered at the added pressure. "Tell me why she'd take a pathetic geek like you."

The physicist coughed out red liquid.

"Answer me, swine!"

"Answer this!"

A hiss sounded. Kurt released Leonard and shrunk away from the swift stream of pepper spray. The only thing needed was a hit to the head with a trash can lid. Kurt staggered down, unconscious. "Babe." She turned to the other fighter. "Are you- _oh god."_

The physicist tried to force himself on his feet as he cradled a fresh knife wound in the shoulder, only to slide back down. The blood seeped through his jacket and fingers with ease. An asthma attack started to surface. "You gotta run," he wheezes. "Get outta here, call for help. . ."

Penny disobeyed. She tried to staunch the blood with the corner of her new shirt. "You're gonna be ok. You'll be- Leonard, where's your inhaler?"

"I don't need it."

"Leonard-"

"I don't need it, Penny!" He coughed and tried to stand again. "Forget me. Go get help." The color drains from his face all too fast. "Go get. . ."

His eyes flutter shut. The girl is left to scream his name and shake him before dragging the unconscious body back to the restaurant.

**Break the line!**

"You really shouldn't mess with that."

The following events- the drive to the hospital, the call from their expectant friends, Leonard being taken away for treatment- Penny had whited out and a gaping hole had been left in her memory. Raj had volunteered to make sure the two were alright and to drive them home, but had been quietly mumbling to himself for quite some time. Everyone else had remained at the apartment complex to comfort Sheldon along with each other (but mostly Sheldon). Penny looked up from the bandage on her arm. ". . . Huh?"

"Don't mess with the bandage," repeated the indian gently. "It'll get infected."

"Um. . . right. Thanks Raj."

A light smell of lemon cleaning agent hung about the hallway. Portraits of Jesus, Mary, and several different angels hung on the walls, each inscribed with their own little verses, proverbs and psalms. The white of the paint and tiles were offset by the workers' disney and flower patterned scrubs. Despite all the noise, there was not a clatter, clack, or blip that brought either Raj or Penny comfort. The girl stared intently at the door handle of room 208. Rather strange that the indian could talk, but maybe he was so scared for the health of his friend that he didn't worry much for looking like a fool in front of any of the female workers.

"If it will make you feel any better. . ." Raj held up a small string of lapis lazuli beads with a silvery Devi pendant dangling off. "You can pray with me." She was quiet for a second. Raj stuttered and abashed explanation. "I-I've had these prayer beads since I was a child in New Delhi. I know i-it's a little silly, but. . . sometimes I take them out and pray when I'm anxious or scared, like when I used to be scared of thunderstorms or the dark. Maybe you'll feel a little better if you use them."

Penny shakes her head. "No thanks. But I appreciate it."

The indian bowed his head again. Penny rested her elbows on her knees, twiddling her thumbs. An image flashed in her memory of Leonard taking on Kurt. With what looked like martial arts, no less. She knit her brow. "How did he learn to do that?"

"Do what?"

"Fight like that." She sat up straight. "Yeah, he got hurt, but Leonard made the first hit. He was hurt and Kurt was drunk, but he had a knife. I'd never seen him do anything like that before. And why would he know how. _How _would he know how?" The blonde turned to the indian. He wore a sort of sad, yet knowing countenance. "Raj, is there something you and the guys are hiding?"

He opened his mouth, but then closed it and shook his head. "It's not my place to tell," is his only reply before he begins his mantra again. "Oṁ hrauṁ jūṁ saḥ. . ."

The statement only puzzled Penny. Raj was honest, maybe to the point of being a bit of a gossip, and it wasn't like him to hide information about his friends from other members of the social circle. That boy knew something. Why hide it?

The door to room 208 opened at last. A red-haired woman in blue scrubs steps out. The red stains on her front don't go unnoticed. Penny and Raj are on their feet in an instant. "How is he," she stammered.

"I can't lie." The nurse peeled off her latex gloves. "Lot of arteries in the shoulder. You friend lost quite a bit of blood and could still be in shock. That's why he was unconscious. Needs to get that tooth replaced, more ice on the jammed wrist, found some bruising on the abdomen, but he should recover. Didn't finds any broken bones and the transfusion is about done, so there's a plus."

"Could we see him?"

"Not for too long. We'll need to send him back home before it gets too late out."

"Oh, thank you!" The blonde rushed in without much concern for whether or not the other would follow. Immediately she stopped.

Relief washed over her at once, but unease settled in the same second she entered. Leonard sat of the edge of the hospital bed, fully conscious, but the air was ripe with a depressed aura. He hung his head and wouldn't look at Penny. On one side the shoulder had been wrapped up with a generous cut of gauze, speckled red, and another strip of bandage had been wrapped around his middle. On the other, a new brace had been put on his wrist and he held a piece of white fabric to the new gap in his mouth. A needle had been stuck in his arm, connected to a near empty bag of blood- Type O. Leonard wasn't wearing a shirt. Penny noticed that he had a more defined body, like his skin fit better around stronger muscles and bones. Had he been working out? _Where did those come from? _But nonetheless, she scooped her boyfriend up in the biggest, gentlest hug she could give. "Oh, babe. I'm so glad you're ok."

There wasn't a response. Penny pulled him in for a kiss, but the physicist turned his head away. "Leonard?" She touched his arm. He pushed her away again. Is it anger? "Hey, what's wrong?"

". . . I couldn't do it."

_Wait, so it's his pride now? _The blonde had actually become irritated. "Couldn't do what? Beat up my ex?" Would he really put his self in harm's way just to show off?

The smaller took off his glasses to wipe them off. Dried salts had found their way onto the lenses. Leonard looks up at the girl and wipes away the tears he had been crying. "I couldn't protect you."

Lights danced outside the window in the streets of Pasadena. Sound had been muted by the walls. The hospital room was no doubt warmer and safer, but not everyone was comfortable. Was Raj watching? Did he know? That was not the problem.

"I'm useless," the smaller mumbled. "There's no way around it."

"Leonard, you are not useless-"

"Look at me, Penny!" He shook his left wrist. The outburst is enough to strike fear into the blonde. "I can't even drive myself home tonight! You wouldn't even let me carry the food we were suppose to bring! I-" And just like that he stops yelling. The physicist curled up in his seat again, burying his face in his arms. He was little more than a trembling, broken mess. "I-I'm sorry, Penny," he says. "I didn't mean to yell at you. I'm just angry. Upset. I-I want to go home."

It was wrong. All wrong. He wasn't whining or openly sobbing like on a bad day. Just quietly sitting while the tears streamed down, like he had given up on himself and didn't very much care who saw him like this. Leonard was more than accepting of Penny's second offer for physical comfort. Even using one arm, his grip around the girl's waist is a tight one. She lazily stroked his hair with one hand and wrapped her other arm around the back of his neck. "I guess I wanted a reason for you to keep me around," the smaller mumbled. "Wanted to be a good boyfriend and be able to fight off anyone who would hurt you. I didn't jam my hand in a wall- I jammed it in a punching bag at the university gym. I just-" He exhaled and leaned his head on the girl's chest. "I-I'm sorry."

". . . How did you learn?"

Leonard shrugged. "Raj told me about a student who needed tutoring in calculus. He competes in martial arts tournaments for funds and taught me what he knew since he couldn't pay for the extra lessons."

Neither spoke for some time. Penny sighed. "You're being ridiculous, Leonard. I don't know anyone with an ego like yours."

He started to push away. She pulled him back in.

"But anyone who would take a knife for me would not be someone I would want to give up. Don't prove yourself to or protect me or anything like that. Please, just be you. Be safe, be happy. . . Be mine. Understand?"

He nodded after a moment. The girl was happy to see him straighten up, sniff to clear his nose, and wipe his eyes and cheeks. "If someone told me that when I was in college or high school, I never would have believed them. Thanks, Penny. I'm feeling better now."

The blonde grinned and he returns the smile. All is finally well that night.

. . . Except for when Sheldon had found the opportunity to inform the group that they had missed thai food night.

**Epilogue scene (sorta. . .)**

The trio quietly peeked into room 4A. Bundles of pillows and blankets littered the floor and chairs, Sheldon on the couch, Amy on a chair close by, and so on. Howard and Bernadette had curled up on the floor together under a large, fuzzy throw. Leonard motioned for the two to be quiet before sneaking by the engineer and giving a small prod. Then two. Howard groaned and rubbed his eyes. The expression morphed from sleepy to shocked. "Leonard?!"

"Sssh!" Howard immediately clapped hands over his mouth. "Don't wake anybody up," whispered the physicist. "I want to show you something."

Penny and Raj leaned around to get a better view. Howard sat up, careful not to disturb his wife. Leonard pulled back the sleeve of his shirt, revealing the bandage. The jewish man cringes. "I-is that-"

"Yeah."

"Oh, god." Howard gagged into his palm.

"It's ok," replied Leonard. "Doc said I'll recover just fine." He gave Howard a big grin, making sure to show off the new gap in his mouth. The engineer scrambled out of the covers and ran to the bathroom, leaving a giggling Penny, an exhausted and irritated Raj, and a very smug Leonard behind.

**Break the line!**

Ugh, too short. . .

It wasn't as humorous as the series is and the characters may not always be, well, in character, but I tried my best. I thought Raj's little prayer beads would be a sweet touch and that learning to fight for Penny to combat an insecurity and show his love would be fitting for Leonard.

I actually have a third request. Review the work. I said to take away the good from the story, but feel free to tell me what you want me to know. What to improve, what you liked, any and all of that. I would very much appreciate it.

Have a good day everyone! See you all next time!

-Magician Irono


End file.
